NAMPA, Idaho – Most volleyball players offer their teammates constant encouragement on the court.

After every point – won or lost – there is a celebration or a pat on the back or some words passed from one player to the other.

Northwest Nazarene senior Mari Thomas is no different. She is constantly talking during her matches.

It is what she does off the court, though, that has teammates and coaches knowing that she will make a good coach after she graduates, though.

"She is just a really good teammate, who is super uplifting and encourages you," sophomore Jess Brennis said. "On and off the court, she is a good person to help you develop character and also to help you be the best on the court."

Thomas, an outside hitter, will play her final two home matches this week against Central Washington (7 p.m. Tuesday) and Montana State Billings (7 p.m. Thursday).

The secondary education major with a math emphasis has coaching in her blood. Her dad, Willie, is the football coach and a teacher at Butte College a community college in Oroville, Calif.

Following in his footsteps wasn't always her plan, but she said she'd give anything to be like him.

"It is fun to be around the kids and seeing what they love to do," she said. "In teaching, especially math, you don't necessarily have kids that love the content. If you are coaching a team, they most likely want to be there.

"I've seen my dad change a lot of lives at the junior college level. I want to just have a positive impact on kids and help them get better as an athlete and a person."

Thomas transferred to NNU from Feather River Community College in Quincy, Calif. She redshirted her first year in Nampa before becoming a starter for the nationally-ranked Nighthawks and has made a difference from Day 1 according to her coach Doug English.

"She works hard every day. She has great emotional intelligence and she is able to relate to all of her teammates," English said. "She sets the tone in practice and can talk to everybody in every situation. Those kids are so valuable."

Thomas has coached throughout her life, from helping with a 12-and-up team in California to working camps in the summer, but it wasn't until she took a personality test her second semester at NNU that she realized life might have a different path for her.

She came to Nampa as an engineering major but decided it wasn't for her.

"I had a life talk with my physics professor and he said, 'You've coached and liked being around kids, what about teaching?'" Thomas said. "And I said, 'Perfect.' I hadn't really thought about it."

She is certainly thinking about it now, though. Soaking up advice about her game from her current coaches, and remembering the way coaches have reached her through the years. And she is already developing her own ideas on how to teach her future athletes and students.

"Being relatable, being able to push your athletes in a doable way – not push them too far," she said. "You need to be coaching them in life, not just your sport."

Which is something that Thomas is already practicing with her teammates.